ARG
There is currently an ARG in the official The Messenger Discord. Hints of the ARG were thrown November 20, 2018, and the ARG truly began December 8, 2018, when The Archivist joined as a member. Other characters from the universe of The Messenger have visited, such as The Shopkeeper, the Clockwork Concierge, and Suses. Note: Some messages from other members that were posted in between the characters' messages were removed for readability. November 20, 2018 The Version 1.0.4 update released on November 20, 2018. On that day, The Shopkeeper chatted in Soleil's Twitch stream of The Messenger. The Shopkeeper revealed the existence of an unknown character named "The Archivist." November 21, 2018 In the PC version of The Messenger, the dialogue files are easily accessed from a folder called "StreamingAssets." * Steam: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Messenger\TheMessenger_Data\StreamingAssets * GOG:C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\The Messenger\TheMessenger_Data\StreamingAssets Before the Version 1.0.4 update, there were only 3 dialogue files. * Credits.tsv, which contains the credits. * Loc.tsv, which contains cutscene text, Quarble death text, menu text, and some credits-related text. * LocDialog.tsv, which contains the character dialogue and generic narration box text. The Version 1.0.4 update introduced 2 new dialogue files. * Loc_Plus.tsv, which contains various menu texts involving some of the newly-introduced features (button rebinding, New Game +, Prophet hints in the scroll, and the Jukebox). * LocDialog_Plus.tsv, which contains new generic narration box text, Shopkeeper text, and Quarble text. However, the "LocDialog_Plus.tsv" file has a secret message, hidden hundreds of empty lines below the normal game dialogue. This message does not ever appear within the game itself and is only found within the game files. When The Archivist's secret dialogue in the dialogue files was discovered by Soleil, a new text channel in the official The Messenger Discord appeared, called #the-void. This text channel acted mysteriously, popping in and out of existence and sometimes floating up and down the list of channels. Pictures could not be uploaded to this channel, unlike with the other text channels. When members posted a few comments into #the-void, #the-void would disable the ability to post further comments. #the-void would disappear and return at random times, with any previous messages completely erased. And eventually, no one could comment in #the-void, with one exception; Soleil was granted a role called "Loremaster," which allowed her to comment in #the-void. #the-void channel would frequently pop in and out of existence, and if commented in, would force-disable any further comments until its next reappearance. December 8, 2018 The Picnic Panic DLC trailer was released on December 8, 2018. The trailer showcases Ninja's adventures in the tropics. And at the 0:22 mark of the trailer, a splash text image titled "VOODOO MAGIC" appears in large stylized letters, corresponding to The Archivist's message, "...use the voodoo magic word, it was etched in stone somewhere in the tropics..." After the words "VOODOO MAGIC" appear in the trailer, Ninja jumps through a circular time rift, transforming the world from 8-bit to 16-bit. He runs forward, passing by a stone slab in the background. This stone slab has runes etched into it, using the in-game alphabet. When translated, the stone slab reads "TUWHERA." When #the-void reappeared, the word "TUWHERA" was posted into it. A new member named "TheArchivist" joined the Discord, a person with the "Loremaster" role. The Archivist posted messages in #the-void on December 8, 2018. By December 11, 2018, the "Loremaster" role was removed from Soleil, as the "Loremaster" role was transferred back to The Archivist. The Archivist used #the-void channel as a means to communicate with the community. No one could post in #the-void channel except for The Archivist, but members could add Discord emoticons as reactions to his comments. Furthermore, after The Archivist finished posting messages for the day, he would completely leave the server. Each time, he would join solely to post his messages, then leave the server. December 11, 2018 December 14, 2018 December 20, 2018 January 8, 2019 January 9, 2019 January 23, 2019 An overwhelming number of VoteO votes overtook the poll before proper discussions about the vote could take place. Some discussions took place about the preference of VoteX by some of the more active members, but the poll was already extremely lopsided towards VoteO and looked like there was no chance for the other poll options. Multiple members expressed disappointment about the lack of proper discussion. This caused The Archivist to message Thierry to restrict access to #the-void, making #the-void only viewable to members with the Ninja Discord role. However, The Archivist kept messaging Thierry even after this change was made. The Archivist made another request, to reset the vote in #the-void. But a few minutes later, The Archivist expressed his anger. The Archivist deleted his original poll, replacing it with a new, unfavorable poll. During this stretch of time, the votes fluctuated many times, in an attempt to keep balance. When the balance was tipped, many members cooperated together, offering to remove their vote or to add their vote to the appropriate poll option. Members coordinated together to figure out the best way to keep the poll in balance while also getting as many people as possible to participate in the vote so that they could all share the vanity role, "Voidmender." As discussions took place in the #ninjas text channel, one member, Kammesennin, offered to give up his vote if it came down to the wire. Kammesennin received a private message from The Archivist. As time drew closer to the deadline, The Archivist began a countdown, and the voting became more frantic. At 5:45 PM, #the-void channel completely disappeared. Time passed with unease, as votes had changed during the last few moments, and it was unclear if someone had tipped the balance at the last second. But a few minutes later, members noticed that those who participated in the vote had a new vanity role, "Voidmender," which shared the same green color as The Archivist's "Loremaster" role. Those who participated but removed their vote in order to keep the vote in balance, did not receive the vanity role, "Voidmender." About half an hour later, #the-void came back. All messages posted in #the-void during January 23, 2019, were completely removed and replaced with the following message. Some time later that day, The Archivist was kind enough to award those who sacrificed their vote the "Voidmender" role anyways. From that day forward, #the-void would remain only visible to members with the Ninja role. The next day on January 24, 2019, the reasoning for The Archivist's anger the previous day was described more clearly by Thierry in the #ninjas text channel. During all of the void-related shenanigans and the critical void-mending vote on January 23, 2019, KuningasEST was streaming a speedrun of The Messenger on Twitch. It was also KuningasEST's birthday. The Shopkeeper dropped by KuningasEST's Twitch stream to wish him a happy birthday. The Shopkeeper explained that he got Suses to bake KuningasEST a pixel cake, and that it would be delivered to the official Discord. In the official Discord, the pixel cake was delivered to KuningasEST. January 24, 2019 January 25, 2019 In the morning, VoteX and VoteO were briefly tied. The Archivist posted this message. Eventually, VoteX eked out a victory by 1 vote. The Archivist deleted his message and replaced it with the following message. February 4, 2019 February 5, 2019 The Clockwork Concierge briefly joined the official server. Before leaving, he namedropped a previously unknown location called "Clockwork Castle." February 7, 2019 One special day, The Archivist hopped out of #the-void text channel to deliver a very important react into the #ninjas text channel. February 14, 2019 The Shopkeeper sneaked into the official server. He joined with a 16-bit Picnic Panic Shopkeeper avatar, artwork which was previously unseen up to this point. February 15, 2019 Spiderbenb summoned the Clockwork Concierge back to the official server. The Clockwork Concierge was unsatisfied with the member count and renegotiated a higher wage with the admins before leaving again. February 21, 2019 Rainbowdragoneyes, the composer of the music for The Messenger, had a casual conversation with The Shopkeeper. The Shopkeeper requested for some tiki music for his tiki shop in the upcoming Picnic Panic DLC. Later, members were wondering which question The Shopkeeper was answering, and Thierry clarified. February 27, 2019 The Clockwork Concierge returned and gave Kammesennin the moderator role for the official server. Then the Clockwork Concierge left again. March 12, 2019 After 500 members joined the official Discord server, Clockwork Concierge was successfully recruited to the server, where he serves as a bot and a moderator. He (mostly) uses dialogue boxes as a form of communication rather than just plain text. The Clockwork Concierge cleaned and rearranged some of the channels, such as renaming the #ninjas text channel to #ninja-village. The Clockwork Concierge chatted with members, and he explained that he was sent to the server by The Archivist. March 13, 2019 Nothing out of the ordinary happens. March 14, 2019 The Clockwork Concierge revealed that there is a connection between The Iron Hood and the money sink inside the shop. The Shopkeeper visited Kammesennin's Twitch stream of The Messenger. During Kammesennin's stream, Kammesennin read The Shopkeeper's "Current area" dialogue in Quillshroom Marsh. The actual Shopkeeper chimed in by posting a comment in Kammesennin's Twitch chat, where The Shopkeeper confirmed that the "I once had to look through the mud for an artifact" quote was a reference to the Magic Seashell. The Shopkeeper went unnoticed in the Twitch chat until a bit later, around the time Kammesennin reached the Arcane Golem fight. The Shopkeeper also dropped a rumor about The Iron Hood and the money sink in the Twitch chat. During the cutscene that occurs after defeating Barma'thazël, where Ninja is a shopkeeper, Kammesennin asked out loud if The Shopkeeper had any stories to share, and The Shopkeeper responded with the following. Kammesennin offered to wait before progressing the story even further, but The Shopkeeper declined the offer. After the "Ray Troid" joke that occurs between Ninja and Soldier in the game's dialogue, one of Kammesennin's Twitch stream viewers mentioned that they did not understand the joke. March 15, 2019 The Clockwork Concierge dropped a hint that The Archivist told the Concierge to guard an evil object inside of the Clockwork Castle. Paraphrasing of the deleted message: The first asterisk word was blue, like the name of a friendly character. The second word was red, like the name of something related to evil. The first asterisk word was six letters long, and the second word had an apostrophe, according to Boo, a person who was able to memorize part of the message before it was deleted. March 18, 2019 The Clockwork Concierge returned to the server to ask an important question about Colos and Suses. March 19, 2019 The Shopkeeper was summoned into the server by Doom Man's fake Shopkeeper dialogue box. Afterwards, the Clockwork Concierge and Phil, the Clockwork Operator, discussed their plan to funnel Time Shards from the community in order to fund a Discord branch of the shop. March 20, 2019 The Time Shard emoticon was introduced to the server. March 21, 2019 KuningasEST was streaming a speedrun of The Messenger at the time, and the Clockwork Concierge recommended others to watch it. Also later that day, the Clockwork Concierge referenced another video game. March 22, 2019 The Clockwork Concierge started keeping record of the amount of Time Shards the community had amassed. He also held a small quiz for bonus Time Shards. The Clockwork Concierge received a message from The Archivist to deliver to Phil. Thierry intercepted the message in stead of Phil, and per the Clockwork Concierge's request, Thierry closed down #the-void channel, since it was too expensive to maintain while The Archivist was away on a dangerous quest. The Clockwork Concierge offered more bonus Time Shards, involving Pitou reactions. Also, Clockwork Concierge wrote messages related to the Demon King that were swiftly deleted. March 23, 2019 March 26, 2019 April 1, 2019 April 4, 2019 To celebrate Sabotage Studio's birthday, the Clockwork Concierge held a 3-question trivia quiz with 2,000 Time Shards as the prize. 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Category:ARG Category:Lore